MUSIC: Bobo Stenson Trio

Published on Thursday 23 October 2008 20:22

BOBO STENSON TRIO QUEEN'S HALL, EDINBURGH

SWEDISH pianist Bobo Stenson is arguably best known through his associations with the likes of Don Cherry, Jan Garbarek, Tomasz Stanko and Charles Lloyd, but his own trios have always been among the most consistently creative and absorbing units in contemporary European jazz. The current line-up, with bassist Anders Jormin and drummer Jon Flt, may be the best yet.

Their music blossoms on stage in a way that moves beyond the more studied atmosphere of their studio recordings for the ECM label, adding an element of spontaneous interaction and invention to the existing clarity of sound, precise articulation and expressive intent familiar from the discs.

They opened with a serene composition by Jormin, which underlined not only their controlled and channelled precision, in which every note and nuance has specific weight and intention, but also the way in which they meld independent instrumental lines into the musical texture.

Silvio Rodriguez's El Major allowed them to open up in more expansive fashion, but it was in the freely responsive give and take on Ornette Coleman's A Fixed Goal that they really came alive, responding to each other's daring gambits in resourceful and open-minded fashion.

Their second set was surprisingly short but no less impressive, and included their elegant re-interpretation of Henry Purcell's Music for a While from 1690, and a compelling piano-bass duo that slipped into a fiery trio workout. They returned for an encore of the colourful Don's Kora Song.